Follow us on Twitter

German Army – Themes and Inspiration

With K47 being a semi historical game it gives us players the chance to write our units own histories as I said in an earlier post I’ve decided to go with a German Norwegian winter defence force, I’ve written a brief history of the campaign below.

In 1946 with the allies pushing into France the Germans short on resources, did not want to cede territory without a fight as every soldier not on the western European front was one less to fight.No theatre of war typified this approach more than Norway. The Mountainous terrain that runs the length of the country proved easy to fortify from allied attack.

By reasoning a small number well trained and well equipped troops could hold off a much greater enemy force it allowed few precious resources would need to be spent. The Gebirgsjäger as the German military call them ( meaning mountain hunters) were perfect in this role.

As the winter of 46′ bit the troops in the Norwegian mountains where able to defend there positions extremely effectively. Cut off from supply and reinforcements until they were able to be brought in during lulls in the treacherous weather, these troops spent months defending and counter attacking in the snow covered valleys and the crags above causing havoc with allied plans and drawing precious resources away from France.

The German tactic of fortifying the Mountains proved so effective the Allies were forced to withdraw until more troops could be brought in and this allowed the Germans to make fresh advances regaining much of the lost territory.

My force will be based on the 164th (formally the 87th scout) mountain infantry brigade fighting in the Reinheimen mountain region. These ReinheimenKrieger (Reinheimen warriors) proved to be legendary tough warriors able to fight in the worst conditions the mountains can throw at them and fought with great distinction the German propaganda machine held them up as heroes of the Reich!

The new walking tanks proved invaluable in supporting the infantry in the rocky crags of the high Mountains, the small Spinne light panzermech proved especially effective able to move between the crags with a nimble ease to bring firepower to bare on unsuspecting allied armour. However the most effective tactic was corralling the totenkorps in the mountains, letting the allied forces advance then unleashing the totenkorps at night into the positions occupied by the allied troops then counter attacking once the horror had spread .

This is my starting point I hope to write many stories of my troops battled during this campaign as we start to play!